World War III
The skeletal world of 2033 lies in ruins as a result of World War III, the Great War of 2013. Overview The great war is an integral part of the Metro canon. Very little is known about the war in itself, including why and exactly how it was fought, though the Enter The Metro game info animation, revealed that a total of 20,000 warheads were used, and the war began with an exchange between two Middle Eastern countries - appearing to be Iran or Iraq, and Lebanon or Israel. After the initial exchange, it appears that a number of other Middle-Eastern countries received the signal to fire their own missiles - prompting the United States, and then the rest of the world, to begin firing all their missiles at each other. The end result creating a global exchange. While currently countries that have nuclear weapons include France, Britain, China, North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan, it is implied in Metro 2034 that the United States was a definitive enemy of Russia during the Great War. What is for sure, from Stepan's account of the war along with flashbacks and dialogue in Last Light, and the live action shorts, nuclear weapons were launched at Russia first. Several missiles were launched from Moscow and other launch sites back at the enemy shortly before the bombs hit. After Moscow was destroyed, the surviving nuclear submarines, confused and with no one to lead them, either launched their payload in retaliation or stood down, in an attempt to preserve what was left of humanity. However, in the end the entire world was completely devastated. Aftermath Post-exchange conditions In the days following the nuclear exchange, the planet at large was a toxic dust bowl. Massive amounts of irradiated material began circulating around the globe, spreading throughout the atmosphere and blocking out the sun; The result was a nuclear winter. The inability for plant life to maintain photosynthesis, coupled with severe radiation lead to the destabilization of the food chain, and the extinction or mutation of all plant and animal life. These changes in the earths biosphere lead to the surface air being unsuitable for human life. 20 years after the war, many areas (especially in cities) are still irradiated, some so severely that only a few minutes exposure is lethal. It is speculated that billions nonetheless survived the initial exchange, but given the surface conditions, most of what remained died shortly after due to radiation exposure or starved to death. Remnants of Humanity The fate of the rest of the planet is unknown after the exchange. While the southern hemisphere of the globe was largely untouched by warheads, the infrastructure of every major nation was devastated, making the damage impossible to repair and leading to the collapse of all global superpowers. it is assumed that, where possible, civilian populations did the same as the Russians and hid underground. The novel Piter reveals that inhabitants of St. Petersburg survived the nuclear war by hiding underground in the metro tunnels of their own city. On battlefields across the globe, groups of soldiers survived by hiding in their tanks. Many of these groups banded together into camps and tried to acquire radio contact with the remains of civilization. In Towards the Light, it is revealed that some areas of the earth were not directly hit by any of the bombs, thus they have remained habitable for humans - free from severe radiation and mutants. It can be assumed that the major leaders of participating countries at the time of the exchange enacted their respective Continuity of Government plans, and are still alive and in power - although given the state of the planet, this matters little. Metro Live Action Short On the 24th of May, 2012, a live action movie was posted to YouTube in promotion of Metro: Last Light. The film gave a snapshot of the moments before the bombs fell. Trivia *Comments made by the currency exchange booth survivor suggests that the war (or at least the first attack on Moscow) took place in early July 2013 - being sometime around July 5. *In the Metro 2033 novel it states that a biological weapon was launched at the Kremlin and was undetected by the Russian missile defense system, this explains why D6 was unoccupied as the occupants of the Kremlin were mostly killed in the biological attack and were not evacuated to D6 in time. The bioweapon strike on the Kremlin is also mentioned in one of Artyom's journal notes in the Red Square mission of Metro: Last Light, which explains that the Kremlin was not nuked, but was instead hit by something "experimental" that "ate everything organic within a radius of a few miles". Another possibility is that a neutron bomb (enhanced radiation weapon) might of been used because it only vaporizes organic material/life and leaves non organic things alone, plus the bomb emits little to no real dangerous amounts of radiation and it has a small A.O.E (area of effect). *The intro from the promotional website shows that Siberia, the Mid-Western United States, and much of the Southern hemisphere was spared from the exchange, meaning that parts of the world could very well be better off than the rest due to not having been affected by the nuclear winter and heightened global radiation levels quite as heavily, maybe still functioning to a certain extent. Furthermore, a comment made by a Ranger in D6 speculates that the Russian Government was moved to Siberia (most likely at the government bunkers under the Mount Yamantau), meaning that the destruction might not be as widespread as believed. *In Metro 2034 it states that America developed an "anti-rocket system" meaning that some areas of America may have survived a nuclear strike. **Due to Moscow's own missile defense system, some areas of Moscow are speculated to not have been destroyed by the nuclear strikes, though this likely amounts only to the outskirts of the city. *A short convential war may have followed the initial nuclear strikes due to the fact that the currency exchange booth survivor says that she witnessed tanks passed her by and that other bombings occured over the days she was trapped, which could be an indication of airstrikes or possibly chemical weapons being deployed. *A short flashback of WWIII can be seen in Metro: Last Light. *In real life, a nuclear holocaust is usually associated with the hypothetical WWIII. Gallery GreatWar.png|As depicted in the Live Action Short. 2013-05-26_00014.jpg|View above Moscow just mere moments before the bombs fell. Nuclearlaunch.png|As seen in a vision Artyom experiences in Echoes MetroLastLight2.jpg|Aftermath of WWIII. A radiation filled swamp is created. Metro-Last-Light-sunlight.jpg|The light is a new setting on the surface. metro_last_light_10.jpg Category:Events Category:Wars